Here are a few tips to help you remember: If you are entering a channel or waterway from the sea, you are traveling upstream. Water will often flow from north to south. This means that if you're traveling north, you will likely be boating upstream.

Which way is down stream?

Downstream means towards where the flow ends, at the opposite end of the waterway from the source. If you are boating from Kingston to Toronto, for example, you are heading upstream. If you are going from Kingston to Cornwall, you are travelling downstream.

Which way is upstream?

English Language Learners Definition of upstream

: in the direction opposite to the flow in a stream, river, etc. : toward the source of a stream, river, etc.